Pile strip



Jan. 11, 1944. W- WEINER 2,338,828

PILE STRIP Filed April 29, 1939 999.00900 00000005. ggoboaa n. 090000. D.

Patented Jan. l1l, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

This invention relates to pile strips, and has for its object to convert a surface of a material having threads embodied in an adhesive, such as rubber or cement, into a pile, either on one or both edges thereof, said pile being adapted to provide a soft and yielding effect when pressed bythe feet or shoes of users, and to act as a brush to remove dust or moisture from the same. The pile may be colored. 'I'he product can also be used for window cleaners, pot cleaners, and for many other purposes.

The invention further relates to a method of producing piled material from waste material, and the object of the invention is to subject such waste material to an action whereby the holding medium of the threads, namely, rubber or cement,

of such waste material is separated from the,

threads or fibers to the length of the pile desired.

The invention consists of a fabric strip, having on one or both sides thereof a pile of the desired depth, the remaining part of the fabric strip being inherently rigid and non-yieldable, and therefore adapted to act as a strip of a mat, rug, or the like, and have the pile on the exposed top or bottom of such mat or rug.

The invention consists further in the method of producing pile on waste material, and consists in subjecting such waste material at one or both edges to an action whereby the medium of such waste material which holds the threads in` tegrally therein is separated from the threads without the use of a solvent, and separated to such an extent as to forma pile of the desired depth.

The invention consists also of a mechanism for making said strips. Essentially this mechanism consists of a plurality of teeth of a thickness to form a line between the surfaces of the teeth. This is applied to a drum, and its next adjacent device is so arranged that its peaks pass through the valleys of the adjacent device. A smoothing device is interposed between two separators. The teeth devices are arranged helicallyon the drum.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure l is a perspective view of part of a strip made of waste material, having a pile surface at the upper side thereof;

Figure 2 is an end view of the same strip showing the pile at the upper side thereof, like Figure l, but in addition thereto showing a pile surface at the lower side thereof (not shown in Figure l);

Figure 3 is a section of a piece of waste material which forms the basis of the strip made in accordance with this invention;

Figure 4 is a side view of Figure 3 broken oil' at its ends, since such strips may be of any suitable size depending upon the origin of such strips;

Figure 5 is a vertical, transverse section of a mechanism used for the formation of "the pile on such strips of waste material; and

Figure 6 is a perspective view of the parts shown in Figure 5.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the various views.

It has been found that rubber tires, after they have served their life in connection with automobiles, constitute more or less a waste material. These rubber tires have heretofore been utilized by cutting off the rubber tread and utilizing such rubber for suitable purposes, and then cutting up the remainder of the tire in the form of strips. The length of such strips in the greatest size may be substantially the length of the circumference of a tire, but in that event, they are more or less curved. In consequence, the cutting of such tires has been carried out to obtain the largest length of strips which when cut are substantially straight strips with parallel edges and parallel side surfaces, and such strips have heretofore been used in the manufacture of mats by spacing them and holding them together in spaced relationship. When such strips are cut to any length desired, the two side surfaces which were the inner and outer surfaces of the tire, have a texture almost solely of rubber, but the edges of such strips present a surface of embedded threads within the rubber medium, and in consequence when such strips were used in spaced relationship and secured together to form a mat, they presented hard and unyieldjng surfaces of a. character which, while they may act as Scrapers to the shoes of wearers, they do not act as wipers.

A strip such as cut from a waste automobile tire is shown in Figure 4, .a side view in which one side or surface immediately in the front of Figure 4, indicated by I 0, is a flat. surface ccmposed of the rubber medium. The opposed side surface indicated by I I in Figure 3, is of like composition and texture. The upper edge I3 presents a plurality of cut-off threads indicated by I4, the ends of the threads still being embedded in-the rubber medium. This is particularly so when the strips are diagonally cut on the bias, that is, when4 the strip is cut the threads run diagonally underneath the side surfaces I 0 and I I, that is, both the Warp and the Woof are inclined to the longitudinal length of the strip. Where the cutting of the strip is such as to be parallel with either the warp or the Woof, the cutting of one or the other, the weft or the Woof, is at right angles thereto, and the other, the weft, or the Woof, at the exterior of the edges, remains embedded in the rubber medium.

' The problem here presented was how to separate this rubber medium from the threads so as .o form a pile of suitable or desired depth without the use of solvents. By a simple picker tool and with hand operation, an operator could carefully pick out the rubber medium so as to separate it from the threads so that only the threads remain without any surrounding rubber medium, but such hand operation, while possible, necessarily made the cost prohibitive. The desideratum of such hand operation was to subject the strip to actions of various kinds by the picker tool so as to remove entirely to a certain depth all the adhering rubber medium so that nothing but the thread remained. As before stated, when such threads are criss-cross in respect to their weft and Woof, special diiculties were encountered which necessarily added to the cost.

In order to bring the cost within such limits to enable products of this kind to be made and sold for mats, or the like, the strips, such as shown in Figures 3 and 4, were placed between spaced bars I5 of a stationary plate I6, recesses or channels IGa being formed thereby. Into these recesses the strips indicated in their entirety by I'I were placed longitudinally of the plate I6, and the plate had a width so as to provide recesses for about seven strips I1, as shown in the embodiment. These strips IT are movably held in the recesses. The plate I6 may extend to below and beyond the underside of the roller 2U, and a roller to feed the material or strips through the recesses to below the roller may be provided at the front of the plate I6, to have this feed roller push the strips to the roller 20. Or, the feed roller 5I) can be placed below the roller 20, and move the strips Il and draw them out of the channels I6a of plate I6 to be acted upon by the roller 20. Or, a second recess plate can be disposed at the rear side of the roller 20, to receive the strips acted upon. The strips then are subjected to the action of picker members I8 arranged in grooves I9 of a drum 20 on a shaft 2l. The shaft is suitably supported in bearings of standards of a machine if-ame, and means are provided (not shown) to otate the shaft 2| at, suitable speed, means being also provided to rotate the feed roller 50 at a suitable speed to move the strips. The movement of rotation of the drum 20 is in the direction of the arrow 22, and the cooperative movement of the strips is in the direction of the arrow 23, namely, inl the same direction. be rotated in the opposite direction also. The relative speeds are such that the drum rotates faster than the strips move forward. The Dicker member I8 as shown in Figure 6 is arranged more or less helically in respect to the circumference of the drum, so that the upper portion 24 is spaced from the lower portion 24a along the circumference of the drum. Another picker member 25. in structure substantially like' the picker member I8, is spaced along the circumference of the drum, in opposition to the disposition of thev picker member IB, i. e., one end 26 of the Vpicker member is lowermost, whereas its other end 27 is uppermost. Thereby, the two ends 24a and 21 of the picker members I8 and 25 are brought very close to each other, whereas the other ends 24 and 26 of the picker members I8 and 25 are The roll 20 can spaced a considerable distance apart. 'I'he circumferential sections, the pickers, are so arranged that not two pickers are now in the same plane. In other words, they are displaced in respect to each other laterally. First, one picks or untwists, then wipes, and so on, and the picker rst picks in one direction, and then in the other. The pickers consist of a triangular member 5I of a thickness as shown, with a picker portion 52. The picker portion 52 is inclined to the plane of rotation. The pickers are not sharp, as then the threads would be cut. They are blunt, and with this inclined part an untwisting of the threads is brought about. By such untwisting the adhesive is loosened. Disposed between the picker members are bars 28 also secured in grooves 29 of the drum 20 which serve` to flatten out the threads and dispose them in a suitable position so as to cause them to be properly picked by the picker members. Thus, by the movement of the strips in the direction of its arrow 23, combined with the rotation of the drum 20 in the direction of rotation indicated by the arrow 22, the successive actions of the picker members and the attening plate bring about a separation of the surrounding medium of the threads to the extent of the length of the pile desired. If the initial height of the strip is about one-half an inch, a satisfactory pile formed on either its upper or lower edge or both is about one-sixteenth of an inch, and the final product is a close, homogeneous arrangement of threads so as to form a soft and yielding pile acting like a cushion or brush, and at the same time is specially adapted to act a's a wiper. The nished product 30, with the pile 3I on the upper edge, is shown in Figures 1 and 2, and if desired a pile can be disposed at the lower edge as indicated by 32 in Figure 2. The ends 33 of the final product 30 remain in the same or initial condition and are not affected in any manner by the actions described.

It will be noted that the picker member 25, is composed of a plurality of teeth, which are formed by two surfaces spaced apart to give a thickness to the teeth. The teeth protrude and have an obtuse angle, although a right angle can be utilized, or somewhat less than a right angle. By spacing the teeth surfaces, the teeth surfaces are connected by a line at their peaks. The teeth are part of a body portion which enters the slot of the drum. The separators thus described are arranged diagonally or helically on the cylindrical surface of the drum. They a1- ternate in direction. The peaks of one separator are in the path of the valleys of the adjacent separators. The line connection at the peaks of the teeth presents itself diagonally to the path of rotation of the drum, and hence to the material to be treated. Thus, the corners of the teeth enter the material, and the line of the peak as well as the angular sides of the teeth abrade the textile cords in one direction, the next succeeding teeth of the next adjacent separator presents the line of the peak in the reverse, and abrades that cord in the opposite side or in the opposite direction, bringing about twisting action upon that cord. A repetition of this action unravels the adhesive, and the intervening action of the smoother 28 removes the surplus from the cord. As many of the cords used in such waste material have rubber in between the strands composing the cord, not alone the exterior bed of rubber in which the cords are embedded, but the rubber between the strands is removed.

It will be seen that the improved method consists in subjecting an edge of a strip of waste material such as is obtained by cutting up automobile tires into strips, to the action of a medium separation so that the threads remain separated from the said medium, and that this is obtained by a picking of a smoothing action. In other words, the edge of a strip is subjected to a picking to remove to a certain extent the rubber medium, the threads again are flattened out, and are again subjected to a picking, and these actions are repeated` until a pile of desired depth is obtained. y

It will also be seen that an entirely new product has been produced which consists of a strip of waste material composed of hornogeneously embedded threads in a rubber medium substantially integral with each other and relatively rigid, provided on one or both edges thereof with a pile of desired depth.

The invention is also applicable for belting in which threads are embedded in adhesive, to fibre of the Tempico brush, etc. The finished products may be used for many purposes, window cleaners, pot cleaners, etc., in addition to mats or rugs. The fibre obtained may be variously colored, either uniformly or in combined color effects. This dyeing is possible because when working with the improved process all of the rubber or adhesive is removed, together with any I adjuncts detrimental to the dyeing process.

' While I have illustrated and described a form of construction for carrying my invention into effect, this is capable of variation and modification without departing from the spirit of the invention. I, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth, but desire to avail myself of such variations, modifications and adaptations as come within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A mat comprising strips of material suitably secured together to form a slab-shaped member having an upper wiping surface, said strips having alternate layers of diagonally eX- tending heavy cord fabric cut on the bias and a layer of rubber impregnating the body of the adjacent layers of fabric, the cut end portions of the diagonally extending cords of the fab-ric extending above the rubber to provide parallel rows of absorbent fiber on the wiping surface.

2. A mat comprising strips of material suitably ysecured together to form a slab-shaped member having an upper wiping surface and a lower friction surface, said strips having alternate layers of diagonally extending heavy cord fabric cut on the bias and a layer of rubber impregnating the body of the adjacent layers of fabric', the cut end portions of the diagonally extending cords of the fabric extending above the rubber on one side to provide parallel rows of absorbent fiber on the wiping surface, the opposite ends of the cords protruding slightly above and impregnated by the adjacent layers of rubber to provide a riged friction surface for contact with the floor.

WILLIAM WEINER. 

